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Basic income advocates lost the battle in Switzerland. They're winning the war
- blisterpeanuts 10y agoLeave it to a left wing opinion blog like Vox to doublespeak a resounding failure into a success. The headline really should read: Basic income advocates lost by a huge margin in Switzerland. 77% opposed, 23% in favor can't possibly be encouraging except to the most fervent believers. No politician is going to back a plan like this when the public is more than 3/4 opposed to it. It's also worth noting that Switzerland is a strong participatory democracy, so we can be fairly confident that this vote count more or less reflects the will of the people.
- abhi3 10y agoIt's possible that people opposed it not because they are against Basic Income but because of all the uncertainty regarding how it will be implemented. Will all the current social programs be gone? Will I have my socialized healthcare? Food Stamps? Will I have to pay a 80% tax? 77% respondents in exit polls also said that they'd back an experiment.
- blisterpeanuts 10y agoYou can word a poll to be attractive. But a law, that's going to expose the wording to intense debate and discussion, and then people's opinions may be affected accordingly. It's easy to say, "Would you favor a B.I. if it fit in with the current budget and didn't deprive the gov't of funding for schools or force them to raise taxes?" Of course most people (in a liberal country like that, at least) would agree to that. I just suspect it's not going to be so easy to implement; if it were, it would be common practice by now.